On second thought, home office approved
Attorney agrees not to meet clients at Court Street home
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — Persistence pays off. At least it did for borough resident Raymond Raya of Court Street.

Raya’s persistence, passion, belief that what he was doing was right, as well as some revisions to his original plan, led members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment to approve a variance on Nov. 8 that was previously denied in July. The variance will enable Raya, who is an attorney, to work from home.

Voting to grant the variance for a home office with certain restrictions were board Chairman Kevin Mulligan and members Connie Murray, Catherine Buchalski, John Newman and William Barricelli. Voting against the variance was William Madigan.

Raya sought the variance because he wanted to have the ability to operate his legal practice in his home in order to have the ability to be with his family.

“I want to be able to sit by my window and do my work with my wife and family around me,” he said.

Raya and his wife, Mary Cozzolino, who are expecting their first child in June, applied for a use variance in July and that request was denied. At the time, they were contract purchasers of the home on Court Street.

During the summer, some residents appeared before the board to oppose the home office use, and board members decided that the use could result in additional vehicular traffic in an area that already has substantial traffic.

Raya and his wife returned before the board on Oct. 25. He said they had purchased their “dream” home despite the board’s denial of the home office use in July. Raya said he changed his original application and was no longer asking to be permitted to have clients come to his home. He said he would meet his clients in the office of a Freehold attorney, thereby eliminating his neighbors’ concerns about parking and traffic.

“We want to do this legally,” Raya said at the Oct. 25 meeting. “We want you to allow us to be up front about this. We’ve bent over backward to satisfy our neighbors. There will be no clients, no signs and no deliveries.”

He said he wanted to have the ability — legally — to take phone calls, to send and receive faxes, to send and receive business mail, and to be able to claim the office space on his income tax return.

Neither Freehold Borough nor the state has a law that permits home offices. The practice is technically illegal without a variance from the zoning board.

Buchalski said she had concerns that neighbors would be “policing” Raya to make sure he would do what he said he would do.

“If we weren’t going to abide by the law, we wouldn’t be here,” Raya answered.

Madigan asked Code Enforcement Official Hank Stryker III what would happen if a person was found to be operating a business from their home without a variance.

“If we receive a call about it and find it’s true, I would give the homeowner a warning, a notice of violation first. If they did not cease and desist, I would then have to give them a summons,” Stryker said.

Madigan said he was “uncomfortable” making a decision on Raya’s application. He said he wanted the issue of a home-based business ordinance to go to the Borough Council.

Newman said he believed Raya was being up front about his plans and did not see a problem with the application.

On Oct. 25, Madigan suggested that Raya withdraw his request for reconsideration and come back when there were more than five board members present since he needed five yes votes. Madigan told Raya that he would not vote in favor of the application.

Raya took that suggestion, and the application was heard again on Nov. 8

and approved. Raya presented two letters supporting his request for a variance.

One letter, written by Sarah Smith Lewis, wife of the late Dr. Jacob Lewis, Court Street, said she saw “no significant reason why Raya should not be permitted to operate an office from his home since traffic and parking would be minimal.” For years, Lewis operated a home-based office.

Shannon O’Brien, of Court Street, supported Raya’s request for a variance and said the use of a room in his home as an office “should not have any effect on increasing the commercialization of Court Street.”

Buchalski told Raya that upon his request she examined Freehold Township’s ordinance that permits home office use. She said his request struck a chord with her. She briefly discussed the restrictions of that law and distributed copies to the board.

“Be as restrictive as you want with me,” Raya said. “I just want to work at home.”

After hearing new testimony, Madigan said he was now “on the fence,” but he was still leaning toward voting no.

Mulligan, the board chairman, said he had listened to Raya’s neighbors and understood their concerns about “creeping business” in their neighborhood. He said the board addresses the concerns on a case-by-case basis.

“In this instance I do not see the harm in having this office. There will be no signs, no clients and no additional traffic. I think it will make a fine addition to the neighborhood because they want so much to be here. It’s a good thing,” Mulligan said.

The Borough Council began discussion on a home office ordinance at its Nov. 14 workshop meeting.